Forward into fall

The change in season had me a bit stumped for awhile. I couldn’t let go of summer. I finally let some projects show me the path forward.

This corkboard sits in the corner where my sewing machine lives. Things get pinned up there and seem to stay forever. I’d like it to become more useful, so I’m going to think about changing it.

What’s up there now? One of Jude’s threadcrumb moonflowers, looks great. A piece of smocking from a smocking workshop that I don’t know what to do with. A doily is under that with a “C” embroidered on it, a piece from a distant ancestor. Things from my trip to India in 2015: the thangka painting I worked on in the Tibetan Buddhist style and a necklace of paper fish and birds. On the right, some of Glennis’s moons are pinned to a strip of cloth dyed pink. And under that, a navy blue strip with some organza pairings pinned to it. None of these things are very active in my imagination right now, except maybe the moonflower. I’m still motivated to stitch squares together (see below).

I picked up work on the garden quilt again. This project has been set aside for a long time. I am motivated to finish it now, at least the quilt top. I figured out what was blocking me – a vague vision of making the new half “different” from the completed half. A vision that proved impossible to realize. I’m now looking to keep the pattern and color scheme pretty similar over the whole thing. I don’t know how tall it will be. Maybe the squares will dictate that. I took energy from finding a remaining quantity of two significant fabrics: the khaki fabric from a worn-out pair of pants and the gold fabric with a fern print that a friend gave me. I don’t have to reject these anymore, just happily use them to continue the theme.

And I’m learning to knit socks. I like to learn new things. I started with a baby sock, as the pattern recommends. I got one done – my first sock! and had enough yarn left for a second. I’ve been making a whole new set of mistakes with the second, but I’m on the home stretch now. It is so cunning how the sock is made. This is the One Sock pattern by Kate Atherley.

This chipmunk is still performing a balancing act on a now-denuded sunflower stalk. “It’s such a short jump to the birdfeeder, I really think I can do it!”